The Healthwatch Salford team are heartbroken to share the news of the death of Engagement Officer, Mark Lupton.

Mark began working for Healthwatch Salford in 2017, prior to that, he worked for our colleagues at Healthwatch Lincolnshire. Mark was passionate about service improvement, patient experience and ensuring everyone’s voices were heard.

In 2019, Mark set up Silent Voices, a group for the d/Deaf community in Salford to come together and share their experiences of health and care. This group grew from strength to strength and over the past 6 years has delivered some fantastic impact thanks to Mark’s dedication and hard work. 

More recently, Mark has worked on the Salford Men's Mental Health Commission alongside Salford City Council. The work identified the importance of supporting men with their mental health and has given some key recommendations for the system to put into action.

Mark was a perfectionist. Every project he worked on, he gave his all, and if he could ‘tweak’ something within a report, right before it went to print, he would. He wouldn’t publish anything until he was 99% happy with it, as he always found that little 1% he wanted to improve, even though it didn’t need improving in our eyes - it was perfect.

But Mark’s main passion was his horses. He now had 8 horses and was creating a fantastic home for them at a beautiful site in Glossop. Mark juggled his full-time role at Healthwatch Salford, voluntary work as Chair for the IMB at HMP Styal, studying for his Level 1 BSL course (and passing it), all whilst caring for his horses, travelling back and forth each day, no matter what the weather. Mark loved being busy; sitting still with nothing to do was not his thing!

But most importantly, Mark was a wonderful colleague and friend to us all. Mark’s excellent sense of humour got us through some challenging times. He remained calm in stressful moments, and like many who worked with Mark, I knew he would always be there for me (Elyse) when I needed a hand. When life threw me lemons, I knew I could call Mark and he’d do whatever he could to support me. Something you cannot put a price on within the workplace, but also in life. I hope he knew how much I’d have done the same for him. 

The only thing Mark wasn’t good at was accepting praise and recognition. He produced the best reports, did the best engagement with the public and was the best person to call after a meeting when you wanted to offload and get someone else’s perspective. He was a great listener, but he also loved a good old natter, especially over a brew and many biscuits. 

He was intelligent, caring, driven and had a wicked sense of humour. Our team feels lost without him.